Photography by Keiko Oikawa
Well it’s been funny ol’ weather, doesn’t know if it’s wet windy November or flamin’ June it seems. After our hot spell in May, it’s gone a bit topsy turvy, some BBQ weather and a lot of umbrella and waterproofs days.
The good side of the inclemency is weekends spent doing up the kitchen, slowly slowly we’re getting there. Still might be the other side of Christmas before it’s finished. Just had the under-counter lighting put in and my latest cook’s toy a CD stereo that fits under the unit too, got to keep the chef getting with the rhythm whilst chopping and simmering. That and the open bottle of wine could spell disaster with my sharp knives but hey it will be fun!
Not been too far as it’s been that time of the month for the next issue, flying fingers tapping at hot keys, soon be coming off the press. You’ll catch it on the web first before it’s delivered to our lovely outlets.
I did get over to lunch with Henry Watt at his new place the Hunny Bell (at Hunworth, just south-west of Holt, the next village over from Edgefield), great to see it so busy so quickly, only been open a few weeks. Had a lovely smoked salmon and pea risotto, and mustn’t forget the excellent fat chips and mayo on the side (blown the diet again, harrumph…). All the Animal Inns collection (Wildebeest Arms at Stoke Holy Cross and 1UP at the Mad Moose Arms in Norwich and Mackintosh’s Canteen also in the city outside Chapelfields) are so individual but have that thread of quality, style and consistency throughout, Henry is one smart entrepreneur, and good company too!
Quick story with the kitchen. We bought one of those American style fridge freezer montrosities, great for chefs but not subtle by any means. Made by AEG and branded John Lewis, we found it as a new but graded item on Ebay, a third of JL’s list price. We drove to Birmingham to inspect it, just badly dented on the sides but it’s going inside a large unit, so only the fronts will be visible. Cut a long story short (including the saga of how we got a matching range cooker and extractor fan on board a clearly far too small transit van), we got it home and fitted it recently. The fridge and freezer parts work perfectly but can we get ice or water out of the clever dispenser thingy… We call out the service engineers who suggest replacing the filter and various electrical bits.
They return a week later, fit them all but to no avail. So they start stripping it down, removing the casing. The clever types in the factory (must have been human, no robot could have been so incompetent surely) had only screwed the frame on to the carcass through the water pipe… It makes you mad, probably why it was returned in the first place. I do recommend buying graded appliances, we saved £5000 off John Lewis list price and they were all new and unused with no dents visible in the final kitchen. And it all works perfectly, NOW!
